Korean Movie Habit: About Once Per Month

Young women in Korea go to cinemas as much as 19 times per year.

SEOUL – South Koreans watch an average of 11.4 movies per year, according to a recent survey by the Korean Film Council.

The report surveyed 2,000 Koreans between the ages of 15 to 49 to analyze the consuming patterns of local moviegoers, the council found that Korean moviegoers watch an average of one movie per month.

Women between 19 and 23 watched the most movies in theaters, paying for an average of 19.1 films per year. Men between 24 and 29 followed, seeing 17.1 movies per year.

Action was the most popular genre in local theaters. In the survey 30.4% of respondents said action was their favorite genre in theaters, while 16.3% preferred science fiction-fantasy, and 16% preferred romantic comedy.

Only 8.5% said they watch thrillers in theaters.

Up to 70% said they didn’t mind dubbing or subtitles when watching a foreign film. Among the respondents who were dissatisfied with dubbing, 58.8% said the casting of voice actors was inadequate for the film’s narrative.

Forty-seven percent of the respondents said they preferred watching a Korean film in theaters, while 38.1% preferred Hollywood movies. About 1.8% said they watch a European film and 1.6% preferred Japanese films in the cinema. Only 0.9 percent watched a Chinese/Hong Kong film.

More than half of those surveyed -- 56.1% -- said they have watched a 3D film in the last year, up from 19.6% from 2009.

For questions on film piracy 0.5% said they have secretly recorded a film in a theater with their phone cameras or camcorders. In the same survey 2.6% said they have purchased a pirated DVD, while 39.7% said they have downloaded a free movie or paid less than a dollar to download a movie on an Internet file-sharing site.

Up to 27.5% of Koreans said they most preferred going to a movie theater as a leisure time activity. Twenty-one percent said they go to shopping, while 15.8% preferred dining out.